DECATUR, Ala. — Hot Alabama weather this week did not deter 97 high school students and their families from attending the sixth annual Skeeter Boats Bassmaster High School Combine. The event has proved to be an incredible opportunity for young anglers to explore college options where they can take not only their fishing talents to the next level, but also their education.

Instead of traveling across the country to visit individual schools, the Combine brought 26 of the top college programs into one place, allowing anglers to meet one-on-one with coaches and team members and find the best fit for them. While everyone has a different situation and approach to the Combine, a repeated theme is that anglers are making great connections with teams they may never have considered otherwise.

While some are gathering options, others are making their final decisions and committing to a school. This year, there were two signings, with Brayden Rivest and Zachary Tanner committing to Wabash Valley College and Blue Mountain Christian University, respectively.

Now in its sixth year, the Combine is also building a collection of success stories, with many previous Combine anglers thriving in college, fishing careers and jobs throughout the industry. More on that in another article.

Besides the main purpose of college meetings, the Combine provides a fun opportunity for high school anglers to compete in a skills competition. This is always a favorite aspect of the event, allowing anglers to bring out their competitive sides and show off their skills with a rod and reel and behind the wheel of a bass boat.

The high school anglers competed in three skills challenges: Casting Accuracy, Long Cast and Technical. A maximum of 125 points was up for grabs in each event, along with 15 bonus points at the knot-tying stations. Awards were given to the Top 3 anglers in each event, while top overall honors went to the angler with the most cumulative points.

After the competition, four student anglers stood atop the standings. Ty Magargle took top honors overall, Tristan Topa won Casting Accuracy, Kaden Tomblin captured Long Cast and Graham Gordon won the Technical Challenge.

Ty Magargle – Overall

Magargle took home overall honors with 366 points, which included 352 points across the three skills challenges and 14 of a possible 15 bonus points at the knot-tying stations.

Magargle’s best category was Casting Accuracy, where he accumulated 123 of 125 points by completing the flipping course in just 41 seconds. That tied him for third with Lowry Dean.

Magargle says he has spent a lot of time fine-tuning his skills with a rod and reel since he started fishing tournaments in 2020.

“There was not much to do during COVID, and I had qualified for a national championship, so I thought I’d better hone in on my skills,” Magargle said. “Almost every night I was out in my backyard flipping into buckets like the ones in the competition. I knew the accuracy was my biggest strength because I’ve been doing it for years.”

Even on the first night of the event, when the Lew’s Accel combos were handed out, Magargle was out practicing with his new setup and dialing it in for the competition.

That preparation and consistency paid off. Along with his 123 points in Casting Accuracy, Magargle racked up 115 points by completing the Technical Challenge in 38 seconds and added another 114 points in Long Cast with a 50-yard effort.

In fact, Magargle was the only angler in the field to score at least 114 points in all three skills challenges. That consistency ultimately earned him the overall championship by 16 points over runner-up Brenson Pulley of Simpsonville, S.C., who finished with 350 points.

The Danville, Pa., senior also had a great experience meeting with colleges.

“I met with probably a dozen teams and a lot of them seemed like very nice people, and I am hoping to meet with some more in the future,” Magargle said. “I certainly narrowed it down from the ones I was interviewing with. I’ve got three or four I’m really interested in.”

Magargle is interested in pursuing a business degree but wants to make sure he sets himself up to work in the fishing industry if professional fishing doesn’t work out. He’s potentially thinking of focusing on sales or marketing.

But Magargle is also very excited to start fishing in college. He has set a goal of winning a national championship while staying consistent throughout his college tournaments. Judging by his performance across the Combine’s three skills challenges, consistency is already one of his strengths.

Tristan Topa – Casting Accuracy

The Casting Accuracy Challenge involved an array of five 5-gallon buckets, where anglers flipped a 1/2-ounce jig into each one as quickly as possible.

This year, Tristan Topa made quick work of the course, completing the challenge in a blazing 24 seconds to earn a perfect 125 points. Dominick Andux finished runner-up with 124 points and a 28-second time, while Ty Magargle and Lowry Dean tied for third with 123 points and matching 41-second times.

Topa is a junior from the Thousand Islands area of New York who enjoys finesse fishing and attributes some of his success in the accuracy challenge to flipping practice when he was younger.

“I didn’t really have a strategy going into it,” Topa said. “When I was younger, I used to flip in mugs and Solo cups, but I really haven’t done that lately.”

The incredibly fast time speaks well for Topa’s casting skills as he looks forward to attending the event again next year when he’s a senior. Coming in his junior year allowed him to explore plenty of options and get a feel for what schools he wants to put on his radar.

“I had two schools in mind when I came down, but it was just fun to meet all the other ones,” Topa said.

While he still has time to decide, Topa is leaning toward a business major while competing on a college fishing team. One thing Topa does know is that he wants to attend a southern school, where he can gain experience on southern tournament fisheries and continue expanding his fishing knowledge and skills.

Kaden Tomblin – Long Cast

Tomblin, another angler hailing from the North, took home top honors in the Long Cast Challenge with a monster 65.7-yard cast, beating runner-up Walker Bulloch’s 59.1-yard effort by 6.6 yards. Christopher Calabrese finished third with a 57.2-yard cast.

Each angler, equipped with a Lew’s Accel combo, 12-pound line and a Strike King Sexy Dawg, got three attempts to cast as far as possible from the deck of a brand-new Skeeter ZXE20.

Tomblin, who is now a senior, also attended the Combine last year. Even though this was his second round of skills challenges, he really didn’t have a set strategy.

“I really didn’t have a strategy at all,” Tomblin said. “I opened that reel up and loosened the brakes up and thought, ‘We’re going big or going home.’ I just let it fly on my first cast and said, ‘I’ll take that one.’”

Tomblin’s fishing experience also helped him in the Long Cast Challenge.

“We fish a lot of big water with schooling smallmouth where we are at, so we are always throwing a topwater a long way,” he said.

Tomblin finished eighth overall, so he was solid across all three events, but taking the win in Long Cast was definitely the standout.

Coming to the Combine twice was also very beneficial to the Maryland native when it came to meeting with colleges.

“Last year we talked to schools and it was great, but we didn’t follow through,” Tomblin said. “This year was great; we talked to more schools and narrowed down a few places to visit. It was very beneficial to me.”

He has whittled his options down to three schools that weren’t even on his radar before the event.

“Talking to the guys that are fishing there now was really great,” he said.

He’s looking forward to visiting FSU, Bryan College and Campbellsville University in the near future. Tomblin is still debating between studying business or civil engineering but knows he wants to attend a southern school to avoid the frozen winter months.

Tomblin also provided some solid advice to other anglers looking to attend the event in the future.

“Come your junior year and keep in touch with the schools you like,” he said. “It’s crucial to build a relationship with the coaches and the athletes that are there now. It’s very important to keep the relationships going.”

Just talking and getting to know everyone has helped Tomblin get a feel for where he might spend his college career.

“Even last night we were hanging out and talked with the guys from Campbellsville for three hours just about fishing and their school and experience,” he said. “It was very nice just to talk to and relate to them.”

Graham Gordon – Technical

The Technical Challenge takes anglers on the water, where they maneuver a Skeeter ZXE20 around a buoy and then hit a casting target as quickly as possible.

Florida native Graham Gordon completed the challenge in 30 seconds, earning a perfect 125 points and topping the rest of the field. His performance separated him from a four-way tie for second between Brenson Pulley, Gavin Benson, Bryce Deheyn and Graham Forbes, who each completed the challenge in 34 seconds and earned 124 points.

“My strategy for that was to get around the buoy and make one long cast and then speed up and flip it in,” Gordon said. “But I made it in on my first long cast and won by a good margin.”

While he was waiting his turn, Gordon watched other anglers and put together a strategy that would give him the best chance for success. It worked even better than planned when his first long cast found the target.

Gordon is currently in his senior year and attended the Combine for the first time this year.

“I came here to get my ducks in a row and find a college as quickly as possible,” Gordon said. “I’ve got some good options and visits coming up. I’ve narrowed it down to Carson-Newman, Bethel University and USC Union. I’m really looking forward to visiting their campuses and narrowing it down to one.”

Gordon is also looking into either engineering or business and possibly going into a trade after school — that is, if professional fishing doesn’t work out.

Overall, he’s very excited to get into college fishing.

“I’m looking forward to traveling the whole country and fishing all the new places and getting to know all the great people in college fishing,” Gordon said. “Most of all, just catching fish in places I never thought I would.”

A complete recap of all of the events from the 2026 Skeeter Boats Bassmaster High School Combine can be found on Bassmaster.com.

This event was hosted by Decatur Morgan County Tourism and the City of Decatur.

2026 Bassmaster High School Series Title Sponsor: Strike King

2026 Bassmaster High School Series Platinum Sponsor: Progressive, Toyota
2026 Bassmaster High School Series Premier Sponsors: Bass Pro Shops, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha
2026 Bassmaster High School Series Supporting Sponsors: AFTCO, Daiwa, Lew’s, Lowrance, Phoenix Boats, VMC, Yokohama

2026 Bassmaster High School Series Youth Sponsors: Seaguar

 

About B.A.S.S.

B.A.S.S., which encompasses the Bassmaster tournament leagues, events and media platforms, is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting-edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), TV show, radio show, social media programs and events. For more than 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series, Turtlebox Bassmaster Opens Series presented by Battery Tender, Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier Series presented by Lowrance, Strike King Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Strike King Bassmaster High School Series, Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Junior Series, TNT Fireworks Bassmaster Team Championship, Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series presented by Native Watercraft, Bassmaster College Kayak Series, Yamaha Bassmaster Redfish Cup Championship presented by Skeeter and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour.